Road Detection with Thermal Cameras through 3D Information

Ground detection algorithms are important for locating the area where a vehicle can travel during autonomous navigation or for collision avoidance Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). Although many algorithms rely on a single camera to detect the ground, they don´t consider the possibility of combining transformation approaches with additional information that could be obtained from another camera mounted on the vehicle. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for ground detection that allows the use of disparity maps and the combination of infrared information to enhance road detection. To this end we propose an original approach based on a thermal stereo system to analyze the thermal features of the road that are then complemented by the depth information obtained from the disparity map. We tested the algorithm with a variety of complex scenarios and results showed that the 2D and 3D data enabled accurate detection of the road independent of the weather conditions.